SIGRID ANDREA BERNARDO is one of today’s most promising young female directors. She started as an actress and director for theatre at Dulaang UP. She then branched out into film and made her first short film, “Babae”, in 2005, about two women living along the railroad tracks in Manila. In 2009, she made “Little”, a gay film about a young man who wants to escape from provincial life with his best friend. In 2011, she did “Au Revoir, Philippe”, a film about various types of love (for country, for art, for other people) which she shot around France after “Little” was shown in a film festival there.

In 2012, she made “Paghihintay sa Bulong”, a dark comedy about a dysfunctional family shown at UP Film Center and won an award in a filmfest in Germany. In 2013, she got funding for her first full length film, “Ang Huling Cha Cha ni Anita”, entered in the Cine Filipino Filmfest of TV5, where it eventually won the best picture award.
Set during the feast of Santa Clara in Obando, it’s a coming of age story about the sexual awakening of a young lesbian girl, Anita (Teri Malvar, who won the Cine Filipino best actress award) and her crush for a beautiful but mysterious woman, a balikbayan now considered an outcast, Pilar, a masseuse who brings some changes among the townspeople (played by Angel Aquino, who won the Star Awards for best supporting actress.)

“Huling Chacha ni Anita” will now finally have its long overdue wide theatrical release in Cine Lokal, showing in SM Cinemas from June 16 to 22. Since then, Sigrid has also directed “Lorna” for Cinema One Filmfest (where Shamaine Buencamino gives a tour de force portrayal of the title role and we believe she should have won as best actress) and the forthcoming “Kita Kita” (about a blind girl, Alessandra de Rossi, and a not so good looking boy, comedian Empoy) that opens in theaters on July 19.

Those who have not seen “Huling Cha Cha ni Anita”, which is the lesbian counterpart of the hit gay boy flick, “Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros”, should not miss its special showing this time at SM Cinemas. For her next film, let’s see Direk Andrea Bernardo do a local version of the acclaimed French coming-of-age sapphic romance, “Blue is the Warmest Color”, by Abdellatif Kechiche which won the prestigious Cannes Palme d’Or.